Chromecast to use "ultra-sonic pairing" to connect with outside phones

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On Wednesday evening Google announced a raft of new features for its Chromecast streaming dongle – including the ability to hook up with phones that are not on the same network as the dongle. But how would it work? We now know… and it sounds pretty damn clever.

The feature is designed to make it easier for, say, visiting friends to be able to send videos to the TV when they visit – without worrying about wifi codes.

According to TechSpot, the way it will work is by using ultra-sonic pairing. In other words, your Chromecast will send an ultrasonic sound, which human ears cannot hear, through the speaker of your TV – and the pairing phone will listen through its microphone for it – once it picks it up, the two devices will be paired using 3G instead of wifi.

How clever is that? How it will perform outside of test environments remains to be seen – but as a back-up you can always use a good old-fashioned PIN code.